Manju Bansal (born. 1 December 1950) has specialized in the field of

Molecular biophysics Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms ...

. Currently, she is a professor in theoretical Biophysics group for

Molecular Biophysics Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary area of research that combines concepts in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and biology. It seeks to understand biomolecular systems and explain biological function in terms ...

unit in the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. She is the founder director of the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at Bangalore.

Education

Bansal did her schooling from

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

and

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

. She developed a great interest in Science and later went ahead to earn her BSc and MSc from

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

. In 1972 she joined the

Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for her doctoral degree. She got an opportunity to work under the guidance of biophysicist G. N. Ramachandran, on the theoretical modeling of the triple helical structure of the fibrous protein collagen. She received her PhD in 1977. Thereafter, she continued working at IISc as a post-doctoral fellow on left handed and other unusual structures of DNA till 1981. She then went to Germany as an

Alexander von Humboldt Fellow The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...

at the

European Molecular Biology Laboratory The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 27 member states, two prospect states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, for a year and worked on the structure of filamentous phages.

Fellowships

Bansal has been awarded an EMBL Visiting Fellowship and AvH Fellowship, Germany and Senior Fulbright Fellowship, USA. She has been a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University, USA, and Visiting Consultant at NIH, Bethesda, USA.

Awards and honours

Bansal was awarded the INSA Medal for Young Scientists in 1979. she is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and National Academy of Sciences (India), Prayagraj, since 1998.

References

20th-century Indian physicists Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014 1950 births Living people Osmania University alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni Indian women biologists Scientists from Uttarakhand Scientists from Dehradun Molecular biophysics 20th-century Indian biologists 20th-century Indian women scientists Women scientists from Uttarakhand {{India-scientist-stub